My last days in London were very well spent.
On Friday night, James came and got me at the hotel to show me around the big city area of London. I had no idea that this area really existed but it's like a little New York City, with time square-esque videotrons, theatres and big crowds.
We got on a doubledecker red bus to enjoy some sights along the way, such as Trafalgar Square, which is a huge roundabout and hub of the city.
The bus took us to Oxford circus which is a fancy shopping centre with big, famous department stores (I will need to come back to London one day with money to burn in all of these fancy shops). From there, we walked to Carnaby street, which offers a more youthful vibe and some unique shops.
This brought us to Piccadilly Circus, which is a mini time square. The buildings are covered in digital billboards and there are lots of big show theatres around. It was a little surreal to feel transported into such a different atmosphere. From there, we ended up at Leicester square (which I learned is not pronounced the way it's spelled, but instead like "Lester"). There, there was a huge M&M's candy shop that had 4 stories of candy and merchandise. It was a short walk to covent garden, which is a quieter area that has a lot of restaurants and street performers. We saw an illusionist and a string group perform. We transported ourselves again, as we made our way to Chinatown, where there were many restaurants and food shops and the street signs were even in Chinese! Lastly, we made our way to So-Ho, which is the gay area of the city with lots of clubs and such.
I had no idea there could be so much diversity in one city! And if you can believe it, we did all of that in under three hours!
Later in the night, I met my friend Mona, who I also met during my contiki trip. Mona is originally from Australia but currently starting her career in London. I met Mona for some drinks and afterwards we met some of her girlfriends at a club where we spent the rest of the night.
I had a really good night, and consequently a very quiet day on Saturday! I spent most of the day in bed besides a walk to Camden town in the evening to enjoy a last bit of the city.
I had an early night because I had to wake up at 3:30 am to catch a bus at 4:00 that would bring me to the airport at 5:45 to catch my 7:25 airplane back to Paris. I'm glad I gave myself lots of time because I ended up getting a little lost looking for the bus stop for my second bus and got on the wrong bus. All ended well and I ended up at the airport with time to enjoy a nice breakfast at the airport restaurant.
The plane ride was uneventful, but things got interesting when I arrived in Paris. I was making my way through the airport to the train station to find a huge crowd of people stopped.
Turns out an empty suitcase was found in the train station so they had to evacuate the station until they did a controlled detonation in the case that it contained anything malicious. Of course once that was done, all hell broke lose as hundreds I people tried to get down two escalators.
I'm currently on my train back to Grenoble, it feels like I've been gone so long! I'm very happy that I has such a good trip and even happier that I saw so many friends from different corners of the world!